Paul Simon Returns to Old Favorites With New Album ‘In the Blue Light’

Paul Simon will take another pass at several of his favorite – and, in some cases, lesser known – songs on a new LP called In the Blue Light. He co-produced this studio project with longtime collaborator Roy Halee; it's due on Sept. 7.

"This album consists of songs that I thought were almost right or were odd enough to be overlooked the first time around," Simon said in a news release. "Redoing arrangements, harmonic structures and lyrics that didn’t make their meaning clear gave me time to clarify in my own head what I wanted to say, or realize what I was thinking and make it more easily understood."

“It’s an unusual occurrence for an artist to have the opportunity to revisit earlier works and rethink them; to modify, even completely change parts of the originals," Simon said. “Happily, this opportunity also gave me the gift of playing with an extraordinary group of musicians, most of whom I hadn’t recorded with before. I hope the listener will find these new versions of old songs refreshed, like a new coat of paint on the walls of an old family home.”